Staff Correspondent

The two-day 18th Bangladesh Denim Expo began on Monday at the International Convention City Bashundhara (ICCB) in Dhaka.

A total of 57 exhibitors from 13 countries, including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Vietnam, UAE, Germany, Switzerland and USA, have been participating in the expo.

Addressing the event, Mostafiz Uddin, founder & CEO of Bangladesh Denim Expo, said, “Bangladesh has emerged as the fastest-growing apparel exporter to the United States in the first quarter of 2025, posting the highest year-on-year growth of 26.64%. This performance placed Bangladesh ahead of other major exporters such as India with a 24.04% rise, while Pakistan, Vietnam, and China with the rise of 17.49%, 13.96%, and 4.18% respectively at a time when US market is volatile because of imposing worldwide reciprocal tariff by the Trump’s Administration recently. I think even on the negotiation table of the trade issues our card should be the industry’s steady progress towards skill development, sustainability and innovation. As we need our trade partners as much as their consumers need us.’’

Bangladesh is the largest denim exporter both to the USA and Europe and enjoying duty-free market access to the EU under the Everything But Arms (EBA) and Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) as an least developed country (LDC) but the status to be changed to a developing nation next year, he said.

If Bangladesh fails to attain GSP Plus, the country will not be able to export products with duty free facility to the EU from 2029, the region accounts for 50.15% of Bangladesh’s total apparel export, he continued.

“In the last edition of Bangladesh Denim Expo, we had expert panel sessions on the LDC graduation where all the speakers unanimously stressed on the capacity building of the industry to cope up with the changing tariff regimes. So, in this edition of the expo, all the panel sessions we designed are solely meant for capacity building of both the professionals and the industry. You may also say that from this edition we shifted from plans to actions to prepare Bangladesh’s denim industry for 2029 and beyond,’’ added Mostafiz Uddin.

There are two panel sessions scheduled for the two-day event on the topics “The growth of the Bangladesh denim industry, through the perspective of denim washing” and “Stretch-ability of Bangladesh denim traceability”.

Abdus Samad, Director of Well of Washing, Arief Labu, Co-founder & Creative Director of Ruhrose RBT Ltd. Julie Davies, GM - Processing Innovation, and Education Extension, The Woolmark Company, Kamal Uddin Mia, Chief Operation Officer (Washing), Bitopi Group, Marco Volpi, Head of Sales for the Europe and Africa region, Bluesign Technologies AG, Md. Forhad Hossain, Owner, Pure Chemicals, Raquib Imtiaz, Business manager, LC WAIKIKI, Reza e Rabbi, Head of Operation, Vertex Wear Limited, Shohel Rana, CEO, Designer Fashion LTD and Designer Wash LTD, are sharing their expert insights in the panel sessions.

Businesspeople think the country will continue to be an indispensable global sourcing destination even during the times of tariff and trade wars. Capacity building and innovation will be the building stone for the industry to sail through the uncertain times.

There will also be one special presentation on ‘The denim business beside sewing and wash production’ by Mohammad Jahangir Alam, Head of Operation, Square Denims Ltd, Garment Unit.

At the expo, a fashion trend-zone was set up to showcase cutting-edge denim innovations and unique fabrics from Bangladesh.